Logan asked, in almost a whisper, “How did they get engaged?”
Florence blinked lazily as she shared the story of the day that George asked Janie to marry him.
AS JANIE AND FLORENCE WALKED the last few hundred feet toward the river they could already hear voices being carried across the water and echoing off the rise of the mountain. Janie stopped in the middle of the overgrown summer brush, her hands out by her side, grazing the tops of the wildflowers and bushes. “It’s hard to believe this will all be gone by next summer.”
They reached the Dunk Pool and could see a few friends on the river. Nate was already in the water, swimming toward Margaret on the Overlook, but where was everyone else? Last summer the Dunk Pool had been so crowded that first weekend home from college.
Margaret spotted them. “Hey girls! Janie, where’s George?”
Janie looked around the Dunk Pool. “I don’t know. I thought he’d be here by now. Where is everyone?” Oliver had been out of sight underwater and he jumped up suddenly, splashing Janie and Florence as they stood at the bank of the river. It was his way of greeting them. He dove back under before they could retaliate.
Florence wiped off the droplets that had landed on the new scarf she wore on her head. “Well, there’s Oliver. Nice to see he hasn’t changed.”
Nate helped Janie and Florence climb onto the Overlook and then Margaret pulled them into a welcome home hug. Nate explained that this was it; all of their other friends had already left the valley. Everything was changing. Their friends, their town, their river.
Janie sat down on the hot rock, sighing, saying that even her father had changed. When Janie returned from school she was shocked at the physical transformation that had taken place in her father, the Honorable Judge Winchester Rutledge, since winter break. He had become so sedentary and was obviously in so much pain. And Maudy was having heart problems and trouble with her breathing. Janie found the two of them at Rutledge Ridge bickering like an old married couple.
So Janie spent her first days back for summer break making some changes. She moved Maudy out of her house in town and into the guest bedroom, hired a new maid to take care of the cleaning and cooking, and moved a hospital bed into her father’s room to make him more comfortable.
Nate laughed. “Janie, only you would hire a maid for your maid.” He gave Margaret a kiss on the top of her head and then plunged off the Overlook and into the Dunk Pool. The cold splash of water provided a moment of relief to the three girls sunning themselves on the blistering rock.
Margaret insisted that Florence tell them absolutely everything about Grant. Did he like Florida? Would he be called up to the majors? Had his shoulder healed properly? As Florence gave her girlfriends the latest news, Janie put her hand to her face, shielding her eyes from the sun. George was nearby. She couldn’t see him yet, but she could feel him. She sensed that he was on the far bank of the river.
Janie called out to the seemingly empty bank. “George, you’re late!”
Janie jumped into the chilly water and was halfway across the river when George materialized out of nowhere. Margaret shook her head. “How do they do that?”
Florence said, “Who knows.”
George grabbed Janie’s hand and pulled her through the water toward him, hugging her tight, holding her up. She rubbed her hand over his newly shorn buzz cut making water splay off it.
He kissed her. He hadn’t seen her in a full day and that had been far too long. “Do you think I did the right thing?”
Janie wasn’t sure if he’d done the right thing. None of them were, but she knew what he needed her to say. “Yes, of course you did.” Janie’s skin was slippery from the silty water; her arms were around his neck and her legs were intertwined with his under the surface.
George and Janie disappeared under the cascading limbs of the weeping willow on the far bank. Janie’s feet could touch the bottom there and she used the leverage to pull George into her, kissing him with a newfound confidence that unhinged him. Her skin was prickly and cold from the icy river; his hands worked their way down her back, across her hips. She arched into him.
Their friends were suddenly talking very loudly on the other side of the narrow river. They busied themselves watching a red-tailed hawk circle above their heads, making a point to look anyplace but the far bank where George and Janie were indulging in one of their intimate hellos.
With a moan George pulled back. “Janie, I have to stop.”
She groaned, complaining. “No, you don’t.”
He shifted uncomfortably in his bathing suit. “Yeah, I do.”
Nate grew tired of waiting and called out from the Overlook. “You get enough of him at school, Janie! Let us see George for a minute.”
Janie dropped her hands from his shoulders. “Fine.”
Margaret finally got a clear view of George as the two of them made their way back across the river. She said, “Oh my gosh, George, with that buzz cut you really do look just like Oliver.”
Janie rubbed George’s fuzzy head as he pulled her through the deeper part of the pool. “It’ll grow back.” She nuzzled her face into his neck. He kissed her forehead.
Florence called down from the rock. “Are you sure that was a good idea?”
They had no secrets from each other, these old friends. George answered honestly. “I have no idea, but it’s what Oliver asked so I did it.”
Without warning Oliver sprang up through the surface of the water and tackled George, nearly knocking Janie off her feet. The two brothers wrestled all the way down the river, following its curve around the Hitch and eventually out of sight. They were never closer to their scuffling, brawling, childhood roots than when they’d been apart for a long time.
Oliver finally settled down and managed to ask George about the aptitude test he had just taken in Oliver’s place.
George never hinted that he had concerns about the scam they had just pulled. “Piece of cake. I’m pretty sure they’ll start you off as an admiral.”
Oliver laughed. “Sure, because I’ll smoke everyone at the PRT next week.”
That was all they would ever say about it.
In time the two of them joined Margaret, Nate, Florence, and Janie on the Overlook. The boys were out of breath and dripping wet. Oliver gave all the girls a proper hug and then flopped down on the warm rock, exhausted. George collapsed with his head on Janie’s lap and closed his eyes. He was worried about his brother. Leave it to Oliver to want to enlist in the military as war was heating up.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with everyone trying to pretend like their whole world wasn’t shifting imperceptibly on its axis. They were all swimming and chatting like any other summer. Oliver held court like a minstrel regaling them with the stories of his latest exploits. The facts left them all shocked speechless one minute and screaming with laughter the next. If it had been anyone else spinning these tales they would never have believed him, but for better or worse they knew Oliver was telling the truth. The old friends stayed there the whole day, a skeleton crew of survivors on the brink of a lost civilization.
Suddenly a distant alarm screeched through the valley, shaking them from their pretense of normalcy and reminding them that this was all temporary.
Janie looked to Nate. “What in the world was that?”
Nate worked as a mechanic at the dam and had become their resident expert in all things related to it. He explained that the alarm was being installed and tested. Next spring when the diversion tunnels were finally shut down, the river would begin to fill the reservoir and the alarm would sound for days.
As evening approached, Florence went home to wait on a phone call from Grant. Nate and Margaret began gathering up all of their things so they could get back for supper with her parents. George checked the sky, anxious to get going so he and Janie would be to the top of the ridge by sunset.
Janie grabbed Oliver’s hand. “We’re going to Sunset Rock. Come with us.”
A gl
ance passed between Oliver and George. “Sorry, can’t. I’m meeting Pauline at the Roadhouse.”
Margaret shook her head disapprovingly as she folded her towel. Janie cringed and said, “God, Oliver. Pauline? You’re going to catch something from that girl that will require fifty shots to get rid of.”
George laughed. Oliver pushed him. George shoved back. Janie rolled her eyes.
Oliver, unshaken, said, “George, I gotta take a leak.”
George knew that Oliver wanted to say something to him privately so he followed Oliver off the path. Nate was right behind them, unaware of the ulterior motive and genuinely needing a bathroom break. Nate patted Oliver on the back. “Janie’s right, man. Use a rubber with Pauline.”
Oliver laughed at Nate, unaffected by everyone’s low opinion of Pauline. He said, “Not all of us have girlfriends. I must go where the promise of loose women takes me.” He pulled something from his pocket. “Here.” Oliver opened his hand to George.
It was their father’s wedding band. George didn’t understand. “What is this?”
“It’s Dad’s ring.”
“I know, but where’d you get it? Why are you giving it to me?”
Nate, realizing he was intruding on a family moment, said good-bye, and headed back to walk Margaret home.
Oliver hated it when people acted like everything was just fine when it really wasn’t. How was that any different from lying? “Look, George, the judge is about to drop dead from that cancer and Maudy’s right behind him. That’s the only family Janie has left. And you’re convinced that I’ll end up getting shipped to Vietnam, so in your eyes I’m half dead too. I know you guys wanted to wait till graduation but the way I see it, you and Janie should just get married now, this summer, while we’re all still here, while that little church she loves so much is still above water. If you don’t, you’ll regret it. And you can be a real pain in the ass when you’re living with regret.”
George didn’t even respond to what Oliver was saying. He was too surprised by the ambush and, as always, in awe of how well they could read each other. George pulled the small box from his duffel bag and opened it to show his brother.
Oliver laughed, pleased with how right he’d been. He recognized Janie’s mother’s ring. He’d seen that image a million times in the oil portrait hanging in the front hall at Rutledge Ridge. Oliver smacked his brother on the back in congratulations. “You’re asking her at Sunset Rock, though? That’s kind of lame don’t you think?”
“Shut up. It is not.”
They were walking back toward Janie. Oliver said, “Lame.” Then he waved to them over his shoulder as he climbed up the path toward home.
George and Janie climbed the familiar trail to Sunset Rock and he kept checking the duffel for the tiny box, making sure he hadn’t dropped it along the way.
The sun was taking forever to dip down behind the mountain range to the west. George was quiet, which Janie didn’t really notice. She didn’t notice the way his foot was tapping nervously and constantly either, waiting for the sun to set. She was staring out at the valley below, trying to commit it to memory before it was completely underwater.
The sky finally burst into a stream of hot red as the sun dripped out of sight.
George took Janie’s hand and let out his breath, trying to sound nonchalant. “Do you remember the first time we got to come up here by ourselves?”
Janie knew which trip he was referring to, not just because it was the first time they had gotten to go by themselves, but also because her mother died four days later. “I remember.”
George turned to her. “Well, I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, since that night, actually. And my answer is yes.”
Janie was confused. “What are you talking about?”
George rolled his eyes, feigning offense. “How can you not remember? We made wishes on the first star as the sun went down. You said that you wanted to marry me when you grew up. Remember? Oliver started laughing at you so you punched him in the stomach and he cried.”
When Janie retold the story of this proposal to Margaret and Florence, even with the million tiny details she included, she was never able to find the words to express the way her chest had tightened up at that moment. With her skin heating up even as the night air was cooling down.
George continued. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve decided that my answer is yes.”
Janie could feel the tears rolling silently down her cheeks. George stood up, pulling her to her feet. Then he got down on his knee. “Jane Martha Rutledge, I have loved you my whole life and I will love you until the day I die. I’ve been calling you my girlfriend since we were kids and I don’t want to anymore. I want to only and forever call you my wife.” He put her mother’s ring on her finger. “Will you please marry me?”
Janie threw herself into him, kissing him with a salty mix of tears. Of course she would marry George. He was the rest of her, her other half, her whole reason for everything.
George kissed her softly. “I love you, and all I want is to make you happy and to be with you every day.” They spent the next few hours huddled together on top of Sunset Rock, kissing, whispering, and making plans. Ignoring the cool darkness and racket of the crickets.
I DIDN’T REALIZE HOW SILENT we had become until Florence stopped talking and the bleating of bullfrogs screamed all around us.
Logan broke the spell. She put her hand gently on Florence’s. “What was the wedding like?”
Florence looked suddenly much older. She turned to Logan and seemed almost confused. She sat up straight, remembering where she was and pulling her mind out of the past. She said, “I’m sorry. I’m very tired now.” Her smile returned and she playfully tapped Elliott on the knee. “I may have been overserved.”
Elliott gallantly took the blame for the amount of liquor she had consumed and offered to walk her back to the inn. I showed them out, thanking her profusely for the stories she had shared. There was so much more I wanted to know. I asked if I could see her again the next day, but she was getting up early to head to Daytona for an owner’s meeting.
We exchanged numbers, but I was worried that Florence would wake up the next day and regret telling us as much as she did. I thought, That font of knowledge may have just slipped away.
They got to the end of my walkway and Elliott turned to me. I motioned to the ground as if to ask if he would come back after getting her safely to the inn. He nodded. Of all of the discoveries I had made in this town he was definitely my favorite.
Logan uploaded the interview video. She explained what she was doing while her fingers moved across the keyboard. Then we called Georgia and Logan told her how to view it.
I said to Georgia, “Guess who you and I are named after?” She was just a silent expectant breath on the other end of the line. “George Jones and his twin brother, Oliver.”
“No. Way. Oliver?”
“Yes, can you believe that? How weird is it that they meant so much to her and she never told us anything about them? How could she not tell us about George?”
Georgia said, “It makes me sad when I think about Dad. Do you think he knew about all of this? Do you think she loved him as much as she had loved George?”
I had been having the same thoughts. “I’ve been thinking about that all day. I have to believe that she did. It was different maybe, but you can love two people. And you said it yourself. Mom and Dad had something special.”
Georgia said, “Yeah, maybe. But now it makes me question everything. I mean it could never be the same, could it? Would you always love one of them more?”
I thought, Well, that really seems to be the question for everyone lately, doesn’t it?
Logan took over the call with Georgia to walk her through watching the video and I went out front to wait for Elliott to return from the inn.
I thought about my mother and George and their first kiss at the party and their last swim in the river. I thought about the church where
they were married and about Oliver dying after returning from Vietnam. I made a mental note to search for Oliver’s death certificate too. I was curious about how he had died. I thought again about my mother floating in the lake while her home burned to the ground. That seemed so strange.
Elliott turned the corner, walking with his hands in his pockets. When he saw me sitting outside he smiled and I reflexively smiled in return. The first day I saw him I had thought of him as the kind of guy I really wanted to like me back. And every once in a while I was caught off guard by the fact that he did. I was finding it increasingly difficult to remain seated on the porch and not run over and jump on him. I had reasons of my own to keep myself in check. I wasn’t sure what was keeping Elliott so virtuous but I suspected he was taking his cues from me. It made me wonder what sort of confusing mixed signals I must be putting off.
He sat down next to me on the step. “What are you thinking?”
That was a loaded question. “I’m just, I don’t know, shocked I guess. I really can’t believe she never told us anything about him.”
“Are you disappointed Florence didn’t bring pictures of them?”
I surprised myself by laughing. “No. I don’t think I could handle that and the stories at the same time. I need to digest all of this I think.” My mind’s eye had already gone into hyperdrive imagining an entire lifetime of snapshots, staccato home movies, soundtracks. “That’s all I need—to see one more image of my mother when she was young and happy draped all over this man whom she loved more than anything, who was not, incidentally, my father. I’ll probably feel differently tomorrow and will break into Florence’s storage unit to search for photo albums.”
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